The present invention relates generally to trailers of the type designed to be towed behind a car or truck and more particularly, but not limited to, trailers to haul ski boats, fishing boats, and the like. My invention is an improvement over existing trailers, my improvement being directed to a trailer tongue that can be shortened to accommodate storage of a trailer in a confined space including a safety function which reduces the likelihood of the trailer being stolen.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that trailers connected to cars or trucks by a ball-and-socket trailer hitch connection between the trailer and a car or truck towing the trailer require a tongue of adequate length to space the trailer per se from the vehicle to allow for a reasonable turning radius. If the tongue of the trailer is too short, the turning radius will be limited when the rear comer of the car or truck binds against the frame of the trailer. By having a trailer tongue of a length equal to at least 1/2 the width of the towing vehicle, a 90.degree. turn can be accomplished without the towing vehicle binding against the tongue or the trailer.
Modem trailers, particularly heavier trailers and trailers which haul heavier loads, require their own braking system rather than relying on the braking system of the towing vehicle to brake both the vehicle and the trailer.
It has become somewhat of a standard practice to provide a brake actuator for the trailer, a device generally referred to as a "coupler", within the length of the tongue of the trailer so that the length of the tongue can be employed for a purpose in addition to the purpose of providing a separation between the trailer and the towing vehicle. The coupler senses an acceleration of the trailer relative to the towing vehicle or a deceleration of the towing vehicle relative to the trailer and actuates a braking system on the trailer to prevent a jackknifing of the trailer relative to the towing vehicle or a runaway trailer that can result in crashes and serious property damage and bodily injury to those involved.
Trailers of the type just described, and particularly those used to haul pleasure boats, are becoming larger and larger to accommodate larger boats. Unfortunately, garage spaces which are the traditional storage location for individually owned pleasure boats when not moored at a dock slip, have not grown larger and larger. Thus, boat owners are confronted with the problem of having their trailers extending out of their garages because of the length of the tongue of the trailer and not being able to close the door of the garage because the length of the trailer, including the extended tongue, is greater than the depth of the garage.
In addition to problems associated with the length of the trailer as compared to the depth of the owner's garage, boats stored on trailers are an inviting target for thieves, particularly in those situations where the boat cannot be locked into the garage because the tongue of the trailer extends beyond the depth of the garage, preventing the boat owner from being able to close his garage door and lock it.
The concept of a telescoping trailer tongue has been in existence for many years, generally being used to facilitate the launching of a boat from the trailer. Applicant is aware of one effort to deal with the storage problem associated with the length of the tongue or draw bar of a boat trailer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,742 issued to Sanders in 1983. The Sanders '742 device however is not readily adaptable to the coupler system that is employed with braking trailers and is not readily adaptable as a modification of conventional trailer tongues.
A trailer tilting apparatus was disclosed in a patent issued to Waylon on Sep. 3, 1963, U.S. Pat. No. 3,102,649. This device was designed to allow a trailer to be tilted without drawing the trailer closer to the towing vehicle when unloading a boat from a trailer. The system disclosed by Waylon has some similarity to Applicant's invention but fails to cooperate properly with a brake actuator and is not readily adaptable as a modification to existing boat trailers.
What is needed then, and which is presently unavailable, is a device that can be attached to an existing boat trailer and which can be added as a modification to such trailers at a minimum of inconvenience and expense.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide such a device.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide a boat trailer tongue which is both telescopically extendable and retractable, which is pivotal, and which can be locked in a safety position or in an operable position. Such a device is lacking in the prior art.